Chemical Reactions
by KatieMarie999
Summary: A series of fluffy Salphys one-shots because his ship needs more love! Both romantic and platonic included. No hate please.


_Guess who ships Salphys now!_

 _Yeah, I'm as surprised as you. I thought for sure I'd be so trashy for Soriel, I couldn't possibly multiship anything. Let me tell you, if you are a Salphys artist whose work comes up in a google search, congratulations! You played a part in converting me. By the time I finished scrolling through the images, I absolutely had to expand my horizons and accept that I am in Salphys hell._

 _I'm not too fussed about it, to be honest, it's nice here, if a bit sparse._

 _Anyway, here's a little one-shot series for you and keep an eye out for a Soriel one-shot as well because I've got a few ideas._

* * *

 **Reasons**

* * *

Alphys had never liked parties.

Raucous laughter, loud music, lowered inhibitions… it just wasn't her thing. Surface drinks tasted disgusting to her and she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out why everyone seemed to like it so much. Alphys didn't understand the allure of parties, at least not giant ones like this, but she felt awkward refusing an invitation. Not when she'd wanted to be included for such a long time.

She was just thinking of getting up and leaving when she heard a faint _pop_ behind her.

"Ahh come on, Alphys, here again?"

Alphys jumped rather violently. She had been sitting with her chin in her hand, not really thinking about anything much. Why Sans felt the need to pop up at the most inconvenient and startling of times remained to be seen.

" _Dammit_ , Sans!—"

"Woah, hey, chill, Alphys." Sans put his hands up in a sort of surrendering gesture. "Relax. I'm not here to hurt you."

"Why d-did you sneak up on me then?" Now that Alphys's heart rate was slowing, she was beginning to get a little cross.

"Just noticed you were sitting here by yourself." Sans sat down next to her and looked at the root beer she was absentmindedly stirring. "What's up?" Alphys stared at Sans through narrowed eyes. Sans shrugged noncommittally. "Okay, you don't have to talk to me. Enjoy your root beer."

"Wait." Alphys spoke up, turning to face Sans at last. "You don't have to go. Sorry, you just… scared me."

"Ahh, but isn't that our thing? I pop into your lab, you holler at me for scaring you, we end up sugar high and you cry on me when your OTP is shattered?"

Alphys's eyebrows shot up. "Um… _is_ that our thing?"

"Well… it was down there." Sans pointed to the floor. "At least I thought so."

"The OTP thing only happened _once_." Alphys's face went a tiny bit pink. "But that's because Mew Mew 2 is garbage and she should have ended up with her true love! I mean Harue was always there for her and she had to throw everything away just because—"

"Hey, hey, it's over. Besides, you don't even see Mew Mew 2 as canon." Sans put his hands up in mock surrender. "Believe me, the whole Underground knows MewRue is your OTP by now."

"Damn straight." Alphys mumbled. "Ruined her whole character arc."

"Anyway," Sans slid into a bar stool next to her, "you're upset about something."

"I'm not… _upset_." Alphys said, though her tone implied something else entirely. "Just… c-contemplative, I guess."

"'Bout what?"

"Y-you wouldn't understand." Alphys stared into the depths of her root beer covered ice.

Sans scooted a bit closer to her. "C'mon, we don't have to play this game. We both know you're going to spill your guts." He gestured for Grillby. "Hey, buddy, can you get my friend here a refill? And put it on my tab."

"Oh, n-no, you don't have to—"

"What, are you afraid people are going to see us sitting close to each other and assume you're madly in love with a goofy skeleton who buys you soft drinks?" Alphys let out a weak chuckle and Sans's grin widened. "Well there you go."

"Okay, you got me." Alphys said as Grillby placed the drink in front of her. "Are you s-sure you want to hear it?"

"'Course."

"All right." Alphys stirred the full glass or root beer until it fizzed a bit at the top. "Are you _sure_ everyone… likes me?"

"Uh… what?"

"I know, I know. That's so… i-insecure." Alphys shrugged. "But sometimes I used to wake up and I look at myself in the mirror and I wonder if people are, you know... faking liking me? You know, maybe everyone actually thinks I'm horrible because of the Amalgamates and they're just scared of ticking you or Undyne off. Or… something." Alphys gritted her teeth before continuing. "And m-maybe they shouldn't. What I did to Frisk was so selfish of m-me and a lot of people c-could have gotten hurt because of the reactivated puzzles. S-s-so maybe they would have forgiven me for the Amalgamates but n-not for being a self-centered, attention seeking… _jerk_."

Sans waited patiently for her to finish talking. Alphys bit her lip and then turned toward her drink so that she didn't have to look at him anymore.

"Y'know, Alphys, you're a genius but sometimes, you can be pretty stupid."

Alphys dropped the straw she had been twisting in her claws. "What?"

Sans chuckled. "Sorry but you don't get to decide who does and doesn't like you."

"Real comforting." Alphys muttered.

"It should be." Sans turned toward Undyne and Papyrus, who were having an impromptu rap battle. "Do you think Undyne's perfect?"

"What? N-no. Of course I think she's great and amazing and _so_ strong and... yeah she's my best friend but perfect? Nobody's _p-perfect_."

"You just made my point for me." Sans gestured toward his brother. "I love Papyrus. So does Undyne. But the two of us know he's a bit of a handful sometimes. Persnickety. Likes things just so. Talks too loud. All that jazz. But he's also loyal and sacrificial and hardworking." He turned back to her and gently nudged her shoulder with his fist. "Y'ever think that maybe, uh… maybe that's how a lot of people see you?"

"I dunno about persnickety… or hard working all the time…"

"Ah, didn't mean you specifically." said Sans with an apologetic wink. "Just, you know, they all see you, flaws and all, but they might see stuff about you that you don't see. Like… well I said you're a genius. You're also hard working a lot of the time, maybe not when you're watching anime but Mettaton didn't build himself. And you're passionate, didn't Undyne say that about you back when you two were dating?" Alphys didn't respond but half smiled as she continued to stare into her drink. "Sometimes we don't see what draws other people do us. And maybe we shouldn't. Maybe we should just enjoy the ride."

Alphys finished her root beer so she wouldn't have to say anything right away. Finally, she looked at her friend, a full smile on her lips.

"Sometimes you're so obnoxious that I forget how awesome you are." she said, giving Sans a one-armed hug.

"Why thank you." Sans did a mock bow. "But I think things about about to get pretty interesting.

Alphys looked up to see Papyrus, who was at the DJ's station and had just put on the Chicken Dance, much to everyone's bewilderment.

"Hey, y'know what we should do?" Sans stood up and took her hand. "We should dance. Both of us. 'Cause if I'm gonna look stupid, I'm not going to do it alone!"

Alphys squeezed Sans's hand and the two of them headed to the dance floor. As she and a small crowd of monsters and humans did the motions to this incredibly ridiculous song, she couldn't help but feel a bit touched. Monsters and humans living in harmony, dancing together and all thoroughly amused at Papyrus attempting to break dance in the DJ's booth while Napstablook tried to drag him out, though not being corporeal made this exceedingly difficult.

And she'd had a part in it. In the harmony between humans and monsters.

The thought struck her quite suddenly, causing her to falter a bit. Yes, she'd helped Frisk establish their place in the human world. She'd helped them get everyone to the surface. And maybe that was an accomplishment worthy of pride. Maybe that's why she and Sans were dancing to this silly song without a care in the world. Why humans and monsters could enjoy each other's company without judgment or predjudice.

Maybe _that's_ why people liked her after all.

* * *

 _Okay first of all, I definitely am the original author of this work. I did submit a different version of this to someone's tumblr blog but I edited it to be a Salphys story!_

 _I hope you liked it! If you want to send hate, save yourself some time and don't because I'm just going to delete the review and report your account, if I can. But if you're a lovely Salphys shipper, I see how tiny the fanbase is and I really want to join it! Are multishippers welcome? Are you okay with me liking Alphore and Soriel too?_

 _Don't forget to review!_

 _~KateMarie999_


End file.
